


Bits and Pieces

by Wagnetic



Category: The Eagle | The Eagle of the Ninth (2011)
Genre: Ficlet Collection, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-02
Updated: 2014-07-27
Packaged: 2018-01-17 21:26:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1402987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wagnetic/pseuds/Wagnetic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Assorted ficlets.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Esca can hear him clearly through the wall. First, he heard the dazed mumblings of fever dreams as Marcus recovered from the strain of their journey. Marcus's body is well now, but his mind is far from healed and Esca hears distressed cries in the night. He hasn't asked Marcus about the dreams that plague him yet, though he needs to know. He is surprised at the extent to which hearing Marcus’s suffering pains him. But it isn’t just hurt that Esca hears. Sometimes it is sweet. Many nights he has heard Marcus sigh his name in the dark, devotion clear in his voice. Soon, Esca plans to make him speak of all this without a wall between them.


	2. Chapter 2

After these years of shame and servitude, Esca is ready to die. He has remained alive too long already— far longer than any of his kin. He reminds himself of this as he stumbles into the arena; he tells this to himself as he throws down his sword and shield. He’ll deny them the spectacle they came for: one last act of defiance before the end. And he’s ready. But when he can no longer stand and the masked man is above him and looking to the crowd, Esca can’t control the pounding of his heart. His chest heaves and he sucks in air desperately as if somehow that will save him. Some part of him still wants to survive.

In the stands above, someone rises. Someone raises a fist with thumb tucked in and cries for his life. Perhaps this is not how it ends after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From what I've heard, this is probably closer to the actual hand sign than the thumbs up thing in the movie, though in reality I have no idea.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So there was this gif set of Channing Tatum with a puppy...

Esca doesn't understand why Marcus is making strange faces while feeding bits of his stew to the runt of the new litter, but he knows better than to ask. He’ll just get some nonsensical excuse, and Marcus has been fussing over the pup since it was born. It was so weak that it could barely move, but Marcus kept it warm, coddled it, and fed it goat milk until it grew stronger, and the pup has shown a strong will to live.

“I’ve decided to name him Ferox,” Marcus says, with that little hint of a smile pulling at his lip. Esca just shakes his head. If Marcus is giving him a name, that means he wants to keep him, and if wants to call this whelp that will never be a hunting dog “fierce,” so be it. They won’t be able to sell him anyway, and Esca knows Marcus’s fondness for small, stubborn things.


End file.
